Power Advocate Helps Women Make Gains In The Workplace

May 14, 1986|By Deborah Wood, Staff Writer

You`re intelligent, you`ve got drive and you love your job. No stranger to long hours, you hardly ever go home without a briefcase full of work. You get along well with the boss and your job evaluations are nothing short of fabulous.

But somehow, someone else always seems to walk away with the promotion, new job or special project.

What`s wrong?

That`s a question Kathleen Bishop, then a trainer in the medical computer field, asked herself a couple of years ago. Doing a good job just wasn`t paying off.

``Changing companies was the only way I could move up to the next level,`` said Bishop, 38, a resident of Davie. ``I decided what I didn`t know was the power game.``

She set out to learn the game -- reading all the dress-for-success, working- smart, personal-power books on the market. What she found out, according to the latest career-development gurus, was that she was doing everything wrong.

Like eating lunch with the wrong people, and not communicating to her boss in his ``language.`` Not understanding and not using the power system at the company.

But like a truly motivated corporate climber, Bishop put her mistakes to work for her, turning loss into profit. And then she took it one step further, getting off the corporate ladder altogether to create her own firm, Kathleen A. Bishop and Associates, to teach other women how to move up to that next career rung.

She calls her day-long lectures Personal and Professional Power Seminars. The next one will be held on May 19 at the Holiday Inn Fort Lauderdale West, 5100 N. State Road 7, followed by one in Miami on May 20 and one in Palm Beach County on May 21.

Power is the key to Bishop`s philosophy of getting ahead -- finding out who`s got it and how to get it for yourself.

Powerful people in Bishop`s book -- and one is coming out in the fall called Getting Out of Your Own Way, A Guide to Power and Success -- are those who are ``able to influence other people to work with them to achieve goals.``

The definition applies to professional and personal goals, Bishop says.

``It could be with your husband at home, saving money to buy a house or with co-workers, getting them together to form a union, or a boss getting your staff to work hard on a project or increase sales,`` she said.

During the seminars, she says she helps women analyze their careers and prospects for the future and shows them what steps they can take to improve them.

For instance, Bishop says it is important to find out how much money is spent on your department. That`s one way to find out where the power lies in the company. If it is a pittance compared to what is spent on others, then that`s a signal to get out -- fast.

She also promises to teach participants how to tell if they are in dead-end jobs, and how to get out of them.

``There`s nothing wrong with not being success-oriented,`` she said. ``Some women are happy being a clerk or a bookkeeper; they like the security of a particular job. But for a lot of women, there is a feeling of frustration with those jobs. They feel their talents are not being used and they wonder why.

``If just going 9 to 5 is what you want, that`s wonderful. But I think what is happening is that`s not what a lot of women want anymore and they don`t know how to get out of it.``

Bishop gears her program to women because she feels they miss out on a lot of social training for on-the-job success and that they are not encouraged to develop leadership qualities as youngsters. Nancy Wavra, sales director at the Seagate Hotel and Beach Club in Delray Beach, agrees.

``Women have to get rid of all the negative connotations power has for them and think of it in a positive way,`` she said.

Wavra attended one of Bishop`s lectures last year and said Bishop made her realize that she was wasting her time waiting for others to help her career.

``Power was a characteristic I`ve always assumed somebody else had, that another person had the power to give me what I wanted,`` she said.

``Kathy made me realize that somebody else is not going to give you the power to achieve your goals. You have it; you just have to learn how to use it effectively.``

Bishop apparently has learned her own lessons well. She hopes to net more than $100,000 this year, a jump from the top salary of $30,000 she made in the medical field. The money will come from seminars, product sales (tapes, books and pamphlets produced by herself and others) and writing and consulting fees.

While many people are reluctant to discuss how much money they make, Bishop has no qualms about making her prediction public. She believes in taking charge of her future.

``That`s part of goal setting,`` she said. ``You have to make it happen, rather than let it happen.``